Latest Info on Washing Machines

[NanoSour]

I'll make my recommendation

Speed Queen washers built to last 25 years

Bought off Amazon 4 years ago with no problems running them 5 days a week with 3 teenagers in the house. Love the fact that they are just utilitarian with minimal plastic, i.e. built to fail, parts. And built in the USA.

As for mold problems, we always leave the washer top up when not in use.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Ditto for dishwashers as well. They get good marks for energy usage because they only heat up a quart of water and then recirculate it forever. When I see "high efficiency", I know it's secret code for "this appliance consumes so little energy that it can't perform its primary function".

We had two apples from that barrel from an appliance maker whose name rhymes with Ram Stung. Won't make that mistake ever again.

+1
We never had a dishwasher till we moved to a house. My mother had one, we were apt dwellers. That being said we were here a few days and i said why are these dishes not bone dry on the top of the cups. Had the repairman visit and he said , this aint ur moms dishwasher these things save energy because they do not do as good of a job. Sort of like a diet roast beef sandwich, half the calories because they give u half a sandwich.

 

[Breedlove]

Ha , kind of funny talking about dishwashers that don't dry . Just bought a new dishwasher for our retirement home , we have a GE refurb. center here in Houston so you really save money ( same guarantee ) So we found out that dishwashers no longer dry the dishes ...Only the very high end 1K up. I guess this is something that has been going on for a while.

For washer dryer we seen a washer / dryer combo that has a built in heater and built in water heater . This is a front loader , unit in reviews people complained the dryer did not get the clothes dry.

The people at GE said because the WD was a front loader that the drain had to be lower then the drum to function properly , this way the drum could remove all of the water. ( love technology ) one unit does it all and runs on 110/ 120

 

[Koolau]

I'd try to track down a 20+ year old FL washer (Maytag was good back then.) If it works, it should work with just an occasional service call for maybe a timer or "normal" wear item. YMMV

 

[Winemaker]

DW hates our GE front end loader; clothes to not get clean enough and requires 2 cycles sometimes. It vibrates like the bejesus, and has a mildew odor despite several attempts to deodorize. The door is left open when in use, a hot water cycle is the last cycle of the day.

Whenever I watch the DW in prayer, I'm sure the demise of the washer is included.

 

[jzajzz]

The newer top loader.. are called High efficiency top loader.. they use very little water..so much so some people feel like they want to add water if they are looking inside the drum.. it doesn't inspire confidence ..but it does a great job..

 

[broadway]

The newer top loader.. are called High efficiency top loader.. they use very little water..so much so some people feel like they want to add water if they are looking inside the drum.. it doesn't inspire confidence ..but it does a great job..

We set the new top loader HE washer to Deep Wash.
It is a bit more water but not nearly as much as the old one that broke.

I also hate the fact that the new Whirpool washer will not start filling with water until I put the lid down. I am used to putting the clothes, putting in the detergent, and rinsing the detergent cup in the running water.
So, I bought a replacement latch for the lid on eBay. I put the latch in which tricks the washer in thinking the lid is down. I do my thing then pull out the latch and put down the lid. This however still does not allow for pre-soaking.

 

[RE2Boys]

We had heard many stories of folks unhappy with the more expensive front loaders that we did not give them any consideration (mostly smell and mildew that you paid extra for).
When our 20+ year old washer died, we purchased a Whirlpool Cabrio top loader. We haven't been impressed with it as it regularly leaves a detergent residue on dark clothing. We've had to cut back on amount of detergent used, gone with a second rinse option, and switched to deep water wash (not all that deep) to insure the residue is rinsed out. So much for water savings. I suspect we are still saving some water over the old style agitator tubs but have defeated many of the water saving features.

In our case, we really don't care about water savings as our water is relatively inexpensive and we live three miles from one of the Great Lakes so water is plentiful.

 

[Sue J]

We set the new top loader HE washer to Deep Wash.
It is a bit more water but not nearly as much as the old one that broke.

I also hate the fact that the new Whirpool washer will not start filling with water until I put the lid down. I am used to putting the clothes, putting in the detergent, and rinsing the detergent cup in the running water.
So, I bought a replacement latch for the lid on eBay. I put the latch in which tricks the washer in thinking the lid is down. I do my thing then pull out the latch and put down the lid. This however still does not allow for pre-soaking.

I also like to rinse out the cup like that. Our top loader has a magnetic sensor to tell it the lid is down so DH found a nice magnet that I keep on the side of the cabinet. If I put it on the sensor, the washer thinks the lid is closed.

Also, I like to watch Hey I know I'm not the only one!

 

[Ragna]

We have had a maytag FL for ~ 10 y on a septic system (wanted keep water use down). It has worked great and have never had a smell problem. We do leave the door open when not using to dry out. Also, many people use too much soap in FL machines leading to a excessive soap concentration, which I understand can contribute to the smell problem in FL machines.

 

[Bestwifeever]

In my little immediate family, we have a pretty old-fashioned top loader with an agitator, a top loader with lots of bells and whistles without an agitator, and a front loader, all bought within the past three years, with matching dryers, from different stores. Everyone's clothes look equally clean to me, and none of the machines has broken down. Good luck deciding what to buy!

 

[Ian S]

We have one of the recalled "exploding" Samsung top loader HE washers. We have been pleased with the washing performance and like the lack of a center agitator for doing comforters and the like. However, there were two design flaws with the washer and they are inter-related. First, the suspension spring assemblies weaken with age and eventually cause the washer to go out of balance in the spin mode. In the event that the out of balance sensor fails to turn the machine off, parts of the machine can come free and act as projectiles. Fortunately, our sensor always either shut the machine off or caused a restart of the rinse cycle. I fixed the problem by purchasing and installing a new set of suspension spring assemblies and the repaired machine worked well until recently when the second design flaw manifested itself by flooding the laundry room floor with water. What had happened was the washer drain pump broke free of its mount and a hose became disconnected. The pump's flawed design had it attached to the drum and because of all the earlier unbalanced spins of the drum, the attachment flange failed early. We have just had that repaired under warranty with the new pump being relocated to the chassis of the washer.

The warranty was a result of a recall of the washer where they "fixed" the imbalance issue by some additional bracing and changing the instructions so that only a slow spin would be used for bedding. We opted for the repair and a one year warranty extension rather than a $35 payment to us to put towards a new non-Samsung washer ($135 if we bought a new Samsung washer).

Although they may have solved the design flaws, I'm hesitant to recommend any Samsung washer and Consumer Reports has changed their advice similarly as Samsung washers are by far the least reliable according to their survey.

 

[Jerry1]

Does your lake house community have any grey water restrictions? If not, you could just divert the washer output to a garden area and avoid filling the septic tank.

That's what I was thinking. You'd still probably want a washer that uses a low volume of water but it would take the load off the septic tank.

We have top of the line LG front loader and dryer. We are very happy with them, however, as you can see from the responses here, it's hard to pick a winner. We bought my daughter a washer and dryer about 5 years ago and she hates them. I think they are Whirlpool.

One thing that my DW has always done is under load the washer. She separates, colors and fabrics and I don't know what else. Point is that she doesn't tax the machine. I'm pretty sure my DD stuffs as much as she can in the machine and lets it rip. That may be why there's a difference in satisfaction.

 

[Koolau]

One thing that my DW has always done is under load the washer. She separates, colors and fabrics and I don't know what else. Point is that she doesn't tax the machine. I'm pretty sure my DD stuffs as much as she can in the machine and lets it rip. That may be why there's a difference in satisfaction.

Our kids always did their own laundry - our rule. Son waited until he had NOTHING left to wear and then stuffed his entire wash (delegates, cottons, permpress, whites, darks, tennis shoes) into the Maytag. If he could close the door, it was all good for him. He'd hit the button and go back to the video games. How his clothes survived, I do not know but they seemed to come out okay. It never seemed to phase the Maytag. YMMV.

 

[pb4uski]

We are in the market for a washer and a dryer.
This is for our lake house, which has a self contained septic holding tank, which, when full, costs money to have pumped out. Consequently, water usage is a factor, but not the only factor.....

Not sure if you have a conventional septic system of a holding tank. Water usage would not be a relevant factor with a conventional septic system as the septic tank holds solids and the effluent goes out to the leach field. If a holding tank then I can see water usage being a concern but i would th you might have a gray water system that the washer could be plumbed into (but maybe not).

In any event, the newer front-load washers use a lot less water.

Samsung front loader washers use approximately 13 gallons of water per cycle and our top loaders only use approximately 18 - 23 gallons per cycle.

 

[ncbill]

Skip the hassles with mold/odor on the rubber seal of front-loaders and buy a top-loading HE (no agitator) washer instead.

We bought a HE LG top-loader in 2010, mainly for the increase in capacity given our family size.

It allowed us to do one load at a time (of colors or whites or towels or sheets) instead of multiple loads of each.

Since I'm a cheapskate, we kept the old traditional dryer until its motor died and then replaced it with a LG high-capacity electric dryer.

Unless you want to do all the repairs yourself, don't buy a Staber.

Use less detergent than recommended, and it's ok to drop the plastic cup in with the load.

If it's just a few people you can get by with a smaller capacity, cheaper traditional dryer (I'd look for used appliance stores nearby)